Interrater agreement between children's self-reported and their mothers' proxy-reported dental anxiety: a Chinese cross-sectional study

The RMS-Pictorial Scale: cross-cultural adaptation and validation for Brazilian children and adolescents

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to perform the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the RMS-Pictorial Scale (RMS-PS) for use with Brazilian children and adolescents.

METHODS

The RMS-PS was developed to measure self-perceived dental anxiety in children. The photographs of Brazilian children reproducing the faces of the original scale were taken and discussed by a Committee of Experts. The first step was to produce four versions of the scale (a white girl, a black girl, a white boy, and a black boy) to guarantee the representativeness of the population. The scale was tested in two pre-tests before the definition of the final version of each one. An original form (5 faces) for 7-14-year-old children and adolescents a short form (3 faces) for 4-6-year-old children were developed. Sixty children and adolescents (mean age = 7.67) responded to the RMS-PS, the Facial Image Scale (FIS) and the Children's Fear Survey Scale-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS). Statistical analyses included a descriptive analysis, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), the Spearman correlation, and the Mann-Whitney test.

RESULTS

Test-retest reliability showed a good correlation for the children's self-reporting of the B-RMS-PS across the two-week interval (ICC = 0.791; 95% CI 0.673-0.870). Convergent validity was confirmed by the correlation between the B-RMS-PS and the FIS (r = 0.524, p < 0.001). The children with proxy-report dental anxiety had greater B-RMS-PS scores than those without anxiety (p = 0.010) supporting discriminant validity.

CONCLUSION

The B-RMS-PS showed good psychometric characteristics, being reliable and valid to be used with Brazilian children and adolescents.

Exploring the Variations in the Use of Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) in Literature: A Survey of Studies Published from 2014 to 2023

OBJECTIVES

Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) is a frequently used psychometric tool to evaluate the dental anxiety level of dental patients or the general population. However, it was largely unclear if MDAS was consistently administered in the original format in the academic literature. This work aimed to survey the literature published in the last 10 years to reveal the current usage of MDAS.

METHODS

Web of Science and Scopus were queried to identify papers that mentioned the use of MDAS.

RESULTS

Among a total of 260 analyzed papers, 101 papers included comprehensive information regarding both the questions posed and the response format employed. Two papers only used an explicitly renamed MDAS with modified contents. Among the 258 papers that used MDAS that were supposed to be standardized, many discrepancies from the original version were discovered. There were only 39 papers that strictly followed the recommended scoring scheme: if a participant had a score of ≥ 19, he or she might be highly dentally anxious. Notable modifications included the use of a cut-off score different from the original recommendation, the use of multiple cut-off scores, modifications of the response format or descriptors, and modifications to the question items especially adding extra questions.

CONCLUSIONS

These modifications would create confusion when researchers and clinicians tried to compare data across studies. Researchers are recommended to administer MDAS in its original format.

Concordance of Fathers and Mothers in the Assessment of Their 5-Year-Old Child's Dental Fear

The aim of this study was to evaluate the concordance of parents' assessments of their child's dental fear. Cross-sectional secondary analysis used data from the multidisciplinary FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Child dental fear was assessed at age 5 with the Finnish translation of the modified Children's Fear Survey Schedule Dental Subscale (CFSS-M) by both fathers (n = 588) and mothers (n = 1100). Reply alternatives were from 1 = not afraid to 5 = very afraid and 6 = no experience coded as missing and 1. In total, 514 mother-father pairs were eligible for the analyses. Descriptive statistics, percentage agreement and Cohen's Kappa coefficients were used in the analyses. The concordance of parents' assessments was poor (Kappa range 0.072-0.258). The majority of parents replied "No Experience" to items related to invasive treatment or being unable to breathe. Thus, coding of this reply alternative had a significant impact on the mean values of the child's fear. When assessing the fear of a five-year-old child, it might not be safe to rely only on one parent's assessment, and whether or not the child has experience with the question asked should also be considered.

The Role of Family Factors in the Development of Dental Anxiety in Children

Background and Objectives: In the literature, the influence of parents who suffer from dental anxiety and a previous unpleasant experience at the dentist are cited as the two most common causes of dental anxiety in children. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the development of dental anxiety in children aged 9 to 12 years. Materials and Methods: A total of 131 children and their accompanying parents/guardians participated in the cross-sectional study. The children were divided into an experimental group, which visited a specialised office for paediatric and preventive dentistry for the examination, and a control group, which visited a primary care dental office. During the visit, the children completed questionnaires on dental anxiety (CFSS-DS). Parents completed a socioeconomic questionnaire and a dental anxiety questionnaire for adults (CDAS). Results: The results showed a statistically significant positive predictor: parental dental anxiety as measured by the CDAS. In addition, the t-test showed that children who visited a specialised dental office did not show a statistically significant increase in dental anxiety compared to children who visited a primary care dental office. Conclusions: With this study, we confirm the influence of parental dental anxiety on the development of dental anxiety in children. The socioeconomic status of the family and the type of dental office do not play a statistically significant role in the development of dental anxiety in children.